Well-Known Member

I have reached a crossroads, since I have gout, the gout seems to flair up whenever I drink homebrew. I tried fining my beer using gelatine, with no success (the beer drops crystal clear put still there is enough yeast to cause me pain).

I am told that I can use a 1 micron filter to filter the yeast out of the beer thereby removing the yeast thereby removing the purine. However I fear that dead and decomposing yeast whose cell walls have burst will be small enough to leak through even a 1 micron filter.

I seem to be able to drink Grappa, and some whiskey with no ill effects. I also seem to tolerate small amounts of craft beer, however even half a glass of homebrew will put me in agony for days.

Has anyone had the same gout problem and did filtering solve the problem?

Well-Known Member

I don't know if it was gout but I got severe joint pain in my thumbs when I drank grapefruit juice, had to give up the juice because it interferes with medication, haven't had any pain since, definitely something to do with the acid.

Well-Known Member

Gout is caused by a build up of Uric acid according to my Dr so i wouldnt have thought that filtering would help.
Acidic food and drink will cause it to flair up.

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Beer, in general, contains high levels of purine. Even more so if it has a lot of suspended yeast.
Purine is broken down in to uric acid by our body, hence why beer appears to exacerbate gout to a greater extent than other alcoholic beverages.
Filtering it would certainly help remove the yeast (and therefore some of the purine in the yeast), but not the residual purine present in the beer.

This increased exacerbation apparently also applies to other foods that are the byproduct of yeast (dead or alive), such as vegemite.

caveat brasiator

As nosco said above, its caused the build up of uric acid. This is the result of your blood having a high concentration of nitrogen dissolved in it. We ingest quite a bit of nitrogen locked up in foods we eat, particularly proteins such as meat. Problem is, meat has heaps of nitrogen and our bodies don't need very much of it. Normally its not a problem - our bodies process the excess nirtogen into a compound called urea, which is soluble in the the blood, and as the blood flows through the kidneys it is extracted, passed down to the bladder, and expelled as urine.

What happens if you get dehydrated and/or have high blood pressure is some of the nitrogen in the blood instead of forming urea can crystalise out as uric acid. The nasty thing about uric acid crystals is that they are like long needle-like knives that can stab at nerve endings causing severe pain. Unlike urea, uric acid crystals are non-soluble and are hard to get rid of once formed.

What causes the uric acid to form? Well, as said too much nitrogen in the blood (usually from meat but perhaps yeast cells too). Answer: reduce consumption of meat (and yeasty beer?). But that's only dealing with the symptoms.

Think about this: The concentration of nitrogen in your blood will be in equilibrium with your blood pressure - the higher your blood pressure the more nitrogen dissolved in the blood. Blood pressure is at its highest immediately after the blood leaves the heart. Blood pressure is at its lowest at the body's extremities such as the feet and toes. Here the relatively lower blood pressure causes some of the nitrogen to drop out of solution in the form of uric acid crystals. And that's why gout is commonly found in the feet.

The other factor is dehydration. Just as of a drop in blood pressure will cause nitrogen to drop out of solution as uric acid crystals, so too will the increased concentration of nitrogen in the blood by the removal of water. Alcohol is a diuretic - it increases urination. With standard strength beer, for every litre you consume you will urinate 1.2 litres. That extra 200ml is water coming out of your blood stream, concentrating it and causing it to be unable to hold nitrogen in solution, and out it comes as uric acid crystals. (For more on the diuretic effect of alcohol see: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm )

So what to do? First seek proper medical advice. But if it were me I'd drink half a litre of water for every litre of beer I drank. I'd sit with legs up on a foot rest and wriggle my toes every now and then to keep the blood flowing freely down there.In between times I'd go for walks, and perhaps cut down on the steak dinners a bit too.

(Gout was the gentleman's disease of 18th century England. Wars with France meant wine supplies ceased, so port wine (fortified with 16% brandy) was imported from Portugal. The average well-to-do English gent was pretty inactive, ate a lot of beef and mutton, and when he started hitting the port gout took hold of him.)

Well-Known Member

Feldon thanks for the post. My blood pressure is excellent its in the lower end of the normal range. Water definitely helps I have bought a 2 litre stainless steel drinking bottle that I now fill with water at least twice a day. This has helped me.

My protein consumption is medium-high in the 150gm range (Mostly from Whey isolate), but this is because I am working out regularly at the gym.

The other thing with gout is obesity & diabetes, I am overweight I used to be 119kg with 40% body fat and I am down to 110kg and 30% body fat (target is 20% body fat @ 100kg body weight) and I have Type 2, which is well controlled in the 4.5 to 6.5 range with diet and exercise.

Filtering it would certainly help remove the yeast (and therefore some of the purine in the yeast), but not the residual purine present in the beer.

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Thanks for that information, my fear is that the residual purine will not be removed by filtering and therefore may not resolve the problem. I honestly think that beer is out. I gave away 40 litres of lager to a mate, but I still have 300 odd litres of sours. I am considering my options.

Well-Known Member

I take progout to overcome the pain (last resort), and when I get gout my Dr, prescribes lengout daily, I have no problems with beer. My purines come form shell fish, AND PRESERVED meats ham, salami. liverwurst, metwurst. I have been pain free for 3 years.

Well-Known Member

As nosco said above, its caused the build up of uric acid. This is the result of your blood having a high concentration of nitrogen dissolved in it. We ingest quite a bit of nitrogen locked up in foods we eat, particularly proteins such as meat. Problem is, meat has heaps of nitrogen and our bodies don't need very much of it. Normally its not a problem - our bodies process the excess nirtogen into a compound called urea, which is soluble in the the blood, and as the blood flows through the kidneys it is extracted, passed down to the bladder, and expelled as urine.

What happens if you get dehydrated and/or have high blood pressure is some of the nitrogen in the blood instead of forming urea can crystalise out as uric acid. The nasty thing about uric acid crystals is that they are like long needle-like knives that can stab at nerve endings causing severe pain. Unlike urea, uric acid crystals are non-soluble and are hard to get rid of once formed.

What causes the uric acid to form? Well, as said too much nitrogen in the blood (usually from meat but perhaps yeast cells too). Answer: reduce consumption of meat (and yeasty beer?). But that's only dealing with the symptoms.

Think about this: The concentration of nitrogen in your blood will be in equilibrium with your blood pressure - the higher your blood pressure the more nitrogen dissolved in the blood. Blood pressure is at its highest immediately after the blood leaves the heart. Blood pressure is at its lowest at the body's extremities such as the feet and toes. Here the relatively lower blood pressure causes some of the nitrogen to drop out of solution in the form of uric acid crystals. And that's why gout is commonly found in the feet.

The other factor is dehydration. Just as of a drop in blood pressure will cause nitrogen to drop out of solution as uric acid crystals, so too will the increased concentration of nitrogen in the blood by the removal of water. Alcohol is a diuretic - it increases urination. With standard strength beer, for every litre you consume you will urinate 1.2 litres. That extra 200ml is water coming out of your blood stream, concentrating it and causing it to be unable to hold nitrogen in solution, and out it comes as uric acid crystals. (For more on the diuretic effect of alcohol see: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm )

So what to do? First seek proper medical advice. But if it were me I'd drink half a litre of water for every litre of beer I drank. I'd sit with legs up on a foot rest and wriggle my toes every now and then to keep the blood flowing freely down there.In between times I'd go for walks, and perhaps cut down on the steak dinners a bit too.

(Gout was the gentleman's disease of 18th century England. Wars with France meant wine supplies ceased, so port wine (fortified with 16% brandy) was imported from Portugal. The average well-to-do English gent was pretty inactive, ate a lot of beef and mutton, and when he started hitting the port gout took hold of him.)

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That is badly misguided.

As Goatchop said above, gout is caused by the retention of purine breakdown products. In normal function the kidneys excrete the uric acid via the glomeruli but then some of it is reabsorbed. Gout is associated with a dysfunction of these reabsorbtion mechanisms. Uric acid does contain nitrogen as it is a purine metabolite (dihydro purine trione, C5H4N4O3)
but that's not the same thing as saying it is caused by nitrogen.

Note: I am not a Doctor nor do I play one on TV. My mother has gout and since I am the son with the degree in biochemistry I had to try to explain it to her so I did some research.

For the OP: since gout has to do with a delicate balance in kidney function, anything that disturbs this balance can make it worse. Beer will tend to suppress the pituitary secretion of ADH which is part of the reabsorbtion mechanism mentioned above, so beer will probably make your gout worse. It isn't the yeast, it's the alcohol.

caveat brasiator

Gout is all about how the body deals with excess nitrogen. Explaining the basic biological fundamentals in plain English is much more useful on a forum such as this than trying to blind everyone with science few will understand.

You are a very poor science communicator LC. Your ego stands between knowledge and understanding, and you do more harm to scientific understanding in the community than good.